Scaretale
by CJ Moliere
Summary: Best selling horror novelist RJ Gold has an unusual gift...psychic ability. When teenagers start disappearing in his town he decides to assist the police to catch the abductor. Detective Belle French is skeptical especially when all the evidence seems to suggest RJ is responsible! Rated M for language, violence and character deaths!
1. Prologue

"No...no...NO!"

His father's terrified screams woke Neal Gold out of a deep sleep. He jumped out of bed and raced down the hall to his bedroom and found the older man sitting in the corner, his arms wrapped around his knees, his hair falling into his eyes and trembling violently. Neal sat down beside him and embraced him.

"It's okay, Dad. It's gonna be okay. He's not here. He can't get you," Neal soothed.

"He's gonna kill me," the older man sobbed. "He said if I tried to run away he was going to catch me and rip my heart out." His voice always sounded more childlike after he had one of his nightmares and the worse the nightmare, the longer it took for him to realize he wasn't a child anymore but a grown man in his early fifties and there was a dramatic role reversal where Neal was forced to play the role his father once did when_he_ had nightmares only his stemmed from typical childhood fears, not memories of a traumatic event in his teen years like his father's did.

"C'mon Dad, let's get you back into bed," Neal said and helped his father to his feet, allowing him to lean on him for support as he was unable to walk on his left leg without the assistance of a cane. It, along with the nightmares were permanent reminders of t that summer in 1975. Neal didn't know what those events were and judging by how terrified they made his father, he didn't want to know either. The only thing he was told was that his father had been abducted in 1975 and escaped from captivity, his leg injury occuring during his escape. His father seemed calmer now that he was back in bed and remembered who he was. Neal reached into the drawer in the nightstand and took out his father's pill box. Because his father had so many recurring symptoms of post traumatic stress he was on several medications, including one for his nightmares that didn't seem to be helping at all.

"How bad was I this time?" Robert "RJ" Gold asked his son.

"Better than last time," Neal lied. "You want me to stay in here?"

"No...no, I should be fine," RJ insisted. Neal hesitated then returned to his own room. Robert sat up, reached for the glass of water sitting on the nightstand and swallowed one of his pills. He should've known the nightmares would return. They always did around the anniversary of his abduction. Unable to sleep, he got out of bed and went downstairs to his office, turning on his laptop and resuming work on the nextr chapter of his latest horror novel. Even after six consecutive top spots on the New York Times Best Seller list the press was not able to figure out what the reclusive writer's secret to a successful horror novel was...nor did he want them to know. He considered his writing a form of therapy while his son and ex-wife disagreed. They felt he relived those events every time he wrote. It was true, he did but he _had_ to remember because if he forgot, he wouldn't be aware that his abductor was still out there and at any time the man could return to punish him for escaping.

While he was sitting there a vision flashed before his eyes. He could see a teenage girl walking down a street, a car with its headlights off following her slowly. He recognized her immediately. It was Ashley Boyd. Her mother sometimes cleaned the house for him. He reached into his desk drawer and took out the prepaid cell phone he bought a week ago. Before that he was forced to make his calls from phone booths. The phone rang several times before the girl answered.

"Who is this?"

"There's no time to explain," he said in a disguised voice. "There is someone following you. Get away as fast as you can and call the police."

"You're full of...oh my God!" she screamed and he heard the clicking of her heels on the sidewalk as she ran. Then the phone went dead. Robert concentrated, hoping he would see if she was safe but there was nothing there. Instead he heard a menacing voice laughing in his head.

_She's mine now. _


	2. Chapter 1

_There's been another one. _

Detective Belle French sighed with frustration when she heard those four words spoken by her partner, Detective Emma Swan. Several weeks earlier they'd been called to investigate the disappearance of David Nolan, a junior varsity football player at Storybrooke High School. He was last seen in the company of his current girlfriend Kathryn Midas. While they were interviewing Kathryn, they learned that David had been cheating on her with another student, Mary Margaret Blanchard. At first the two detectives theorized that Kathryn, angry over her boyfriend's cheating decided to get her revenge but she was ruled out as a suspect when her alibi for the time of David's disappearance was corraborated by at least a dozen witnesses. The next person they turned their attentions on was sixteen year old Mary Margaret. Had she been rejected and decided to get her own revenge? Mary Margaret denied having any involvement in David's disappearance and had her own alibi for the time frame: she was tutoring another student, corraborated by the student and his parents. Once again the detectives were back at square one and now another teeanger was missing with signs that a fierce struggle had taken place. Several pieces of the dress Ashley was wearng were clinging to the broken branches of a rose bush, suggesting that the garment had gotten caught on the thorns while the girl attempted to flee her attacker. Her cell phone lay on the sidewalk, the screen and frame cracked as did her purse, the contents scattered about. There were drag marks leading out from behind the rose bush, ending at the road with several drops of blood.

"Same as the Nolan disappearance..." Belle mused aloud. "Although from the looks of it, Ashley fought harder while David may have been surprised by his attacker."

"You thinking its the same person in both cases?" Emma asked.

"Possibly. We'll know more once we have Ashley's phone examined and get the records from her cell phone carrier. If it is the same person then the last call on her phone should have come from a number she didn't recognize like the Nolan boy's."

One of the most difficult parts of their job was having to talk to the parents of the victims and tell them that they would do everything they could to bring their children home. It was a promise Belle intended to keep this time. She was still working harder than ever to find out what happened to David Nolan. The first forty-eight hours of a disappearance were always crucial as the actions of the victim before it occured could often provide clues as to what happened. Unfortunately for them, there were very few clues and no fresh leads. There were not even any witnesses to both disappearances. The peoiple of Storybrooke had a difficult time believing that something so terrible could happen in their little town and by letting their guards down, a monster had entered their paradise and began taking their children away.

As Emma carried on a conversation with Mrs. Boyd, Belle's mind drifted back to the case that had forced her to move from New York to Maine. She'd just made detective in the NYPD when she was asked to investigate the abduction of a nine year old girl. She threw all of her energy into the case but six months after the girl's abduction her body was found in the Hudson River. Belle was devastated, feeling she hadn't done enough to save the child. She broke down, forcing her superiors to place her on leave until they felt she was ready to return to duty. Instead, she sold her apartment, packing up her things and returned to her hometown and moving in with her father until she could afford a place of her own.

"I know she was having some problems with Sean," Belle heard Mrs. Boyd say.

"Sean...her boyfriend?" Emma asked while she was taking notes.

"Well...she _wanted_ him to be her boyfriend but his father doesn't approve. He's Mitchell Herman's son," Mrs Boyd explained. Mitchell Herman was one of the wealthiest men in Storybrooke.

"Could they have been seeing each other in secret?" Belle asked.

"Not that I know of," Mr. Boyd spoke up. "We've always kept a close eye on Ashley but...she did sneak out a few weeks ago and we grounded her. She was supposed to be grounded last night!" He led them upstairs to the teenager's bedroom where the window was opened and a bungee cord dangling from it. The two women took the cord as evidence and asked for the room itself to be dusted for prints. Although Ashley had been taken out in the street, they wanted to be certain her abductor hadn't been in the house prior to the crime. David Nolan had also gotten into trouble with his parents over the situation with Kathryn and Mary Margaret. They also recovered the girl's diary hoping it would provide some insight into the relationship she wasn't supposed to have with the Herman boy and wanted to have the girl's laptop examined as well.

When they got back to the station Captain Hunter called them into his office for an update.

"The only lead we have so far is the Herman boy," Belle explained.

Graham Hunter sighed. "And getting him or Mitchell to cooperate with our investigation is going to be like pulling teeth but keep on it. See if Spencer can make things a little smoother for you," he added, referring to Deputy District Attorney Albert Spencer.

The two detectives left the station and drove out to the Herman house, hoping that the man would at least have the common sense to cooperate.

"Dad...Dad...Dad!" RJ opened his eyes to find his son shaking him gently. He raised his head and glanced out the window. The last thing he remembered was sitting at his desk making that call to Ashley Boyd and he'd blacked out again.

"What time is it?" he asked groggily.

"Almost noon."

"Shit!" he exclaimed, nearly jumping out his chair. "I was supposed to call Jefferson back about doing that People magazine interview."

"Don't you mean _not_ doing it," Neal said. "I don't know why you won't. They're calling you the new Stephen King yet you refuse to do any interviews unless they agree not to photograph you or give any details about where you live. Why?"

"I like my privacy," he said firmly. "The _last_ thing I need is some crackpot stalking me!" He grabbed his cane and got out of the chair, walking into the kitchen. "You didn't happen to make anything for breakfast, did you?"

"Sorry. I got up late and besides, you know my cooking sucks. I was just gonna grab a quick bite before my class started." Neal was a teaching assistant at Storybrooke University. ""But if you're cooking..."

RJ shook his head and started taking items out of the refrigerator while Neal turned the TV on.

"Fifteen year old Ashley Boyd is the second Storybrooke resident to disappear. Two weeks earlier David Nolan also disappeared. Police are still searching for David Nolan..."

The bottle of orange juice RJ was holding slipped out of his hand and fell to the floor. He began shaking as another image flashed through his mind. He could see a boy who looked like David Nolan unconscious and trapped in what looked like a basement, the terrified screams of a girl coming from the room above.

"Stop struggling!"

"I want to go home!"

"You _are_ home! Now get in there!"

"Dad! Dad...come on...snap out of it!" Neal was yelling and RJ felt himself being shaken again.

"Wh...What?" RJ asked, dazed.

"I'm calling Doctor Hopper," Neal said. "You're getting worse, Dad. Those pills aren't helping."

"I'm fine!" RJ insisted.

"No, you're not!" Neal argued. "You're blacking out and having your nightmares. All this stuff that's going on with that Nolan kid and the Boyd girl is triggering it."

"I'm not going back in the hospital!" RJ shouted. "And I AM NOT CRAZY!"

"Dad...I never said you were..." Neal said softly.

"Your mother sure as hell thought I was. It was why she put me in that damned place," he muttered. "I don't want to talk about it anymore," he added and took the mop and bucket out of the closet to clean up the spilled juice on the floor. He may not have wanted to talk about it, but it didn't stop him from _thinking_ about it and considered the so-called gift he had that led to his confinement more of a curse than a blessing. Once the juice was cleaned up, he rinsed out the mop, diposed of the dirty water and went back to cooking breakfast.

In Belle's opinion Mitchel Herman had about as much compassion as a snake. The man actually believed the girl staged her own abduction to get attention, more specifically his son's...and in his opinion it worked. Sean locked himself in his room and refused to come out. Finally the door had to be broken down. The teenager was angry, blaming his father for Ashley's disappearance and denying that he had anything to do with it. He also said something else that had the two detectives even more concerned...Ashley suspected she was pregnant which made finding her alive more critical if it was true.

On the other side of town out in the family's stables seventeen year old Regina Mills waited patiently for her boyfriend Daniel Thacker to meet her. She kept looking over her shoulder to make sure that her mother wasn't looking. Cora Mills was Storybrooke's mayor and had her own opinions about who her daughter should date and Daniel Thacker was not one of them. She heard her cell phone beep, indicating that she had a text message. She unlocked the screen and read the message, smiling.

"C'mon Rocinante," she said softly as she saddled the horse. "We're going to meet Daniel."

As she galloped down the road she was unaware that a car was following her.

After a forty minute argument with Jefferson about his refusal to do the People Magazine interview RJ drove into town to do some grocery shopping. He could've asked Neal to do it on his way home but Neal had already called him and told him he was going over to a friend's house. While he was driving home he saw something that sent chills down his spine. It was a horse lying in a ditch, its limbs broken. It was a horse he knew well, Rocinante, the prized stallion ridden only by Regina Mills, the mayor's daughter. When he got out of the car and walked over to the ditch he could see Regina's purse and broken cell phone lying on the ground a few feet away from the horse's carcass along with small pools of blood.

_He's got her..._he thought fearfully as he reached into his pocket for his cell phone.

"911, what is your emergency?"

"I...I need to report an abduction...and an accident..."

"What is your location?"

RJ tried as best he could to describe where he was and hoped they would be able to trace him through his phone.

"Sir, who do you believe has been abducted?"

"R...Regina Mills...her horse is dead...and there's blood..."

The dispatcher tried to ask him more questions but he barely heard them. He sank to the ground in front of his car and wrapped his hands around his knees as he sobbed, hearing that terrifying voice in his head again only this time it was laughing at him, taunting him.

_Go ahead and tell them, Bobby. They're gonna lock you up again. Hope you like staring at white walls and writing all your stories with crayons. _

Belle and Emma's pagers went off while they were having lunch at Granny's Diner. Emma called into to the station to find out what was going on while Belle paid the check.

"What's up?" Belle asked her.

"We might have another one, Belle. Someone just called 911 and says he found Regina Mills' horse dead along Giant Road along with her purse and some blood blood. Hunter wants us to get out there now."

"Mayor Mills' daughter? Oh shit!" Belle moaned.

"Tell me about it. C'mon."

When they arrived at the crime scene there was also an ambulance there along with a black Cadillac. They got out of the car and saw EMTs lifting an unconscious man onto a stretcher. As Belle approached she was surprised when she recognized him.

"It's RJ Gold."

"The writer?" Emma asked. "He was the one who called 911 to report Regina missing. It was the last call registered on his log."

"We have to take him to the hospital," the EMT said.

"Fine. We'll go down and question him after we're done here." Emma said.

Belle climbed down into the ditch to look at the horse. "He was struck by a vehicle. Check Gold's car," she instructed. Emma ran back up to the road to inspect the Cadlliac.

"It's clean Belle. He didn't hit the horse," she called down then returned to where her partner stood. "So the perp hit the horse to get it to throw Regina off then took her?"

"It looks that way. Either this blood is from her hitting the ground after falling from the horse or she was struck afterwards."

"We gotta catch this guy, Belle."

"I know. But we may have something in our favor this time."

"You think Gold saw something?"

"I hope so. Let's go to the hospital and see if we can find out what's wrong with him. He didn't look like he was injured."

"If he stood by and did nothing while Regina Mills was being taken, I'm gonna take that cane of his and beat his ass with it," Emma threatened.

"That'll make two of us," Belle grumbled.


	3. Chapter 2

"Not to worry Missus MacTavish. Bobby will be better in no time," the doctor assured the concerned woman seated across from him in his office at Murryhill Hospital.

"I'm not crazy! I don't wanna be here! I wanna go home!" the boy protested.

"Now, now, lad, calm down," the doctor said softly. "You'll like it here. You'll have a nice room to stay in and you can be with the other children in the recreation room and get a chance to watch the telly."

"Mum, please don't leave me here!" the boy begged his mother. "I'm not crazy, I'm really not. I really did see all the stuff before it happened, you gotta believe me! And I really didn't mean to hit Jimmy so hard but he was picking on me and Milah and wouldn't stop!"

"I'm sorry," Carol MacTavish croaked. "I...I'll come and see you soon, honey."

"No...Mum, don't leave...MUM!" he screamed as Carol walked out of the office and two orderlies lead him down the hall to his room. It was more like a prison...bars on the windows, a toilet, a sink and a poor excuse for a bed, not that the one he had at home was any more comfortable.

They told him he had anger management issues and dellusions. Oh he had anger issues all right, with that idiot Jimmy Zozo. That creepy kid had it in for him since the first grade, always making fun of him for something but Bobby wasn't the boy's only target. Zozo had it in for everybody and everything. He was two years older than everyone else because he kept failing his classes. Every day while walking down the halls he would deliberately stick his foot out and trip kids at random. Then he would do it in the lunchroom just to see someone get their food splattered all over them. He would even try to shove someone in a locker and keep them there until they screamed loud enough for him to let them out. The kids wanted to tell _someone_ what was going on but they were too terrified, especially after some of their pets went missing and ended up on the doorsteps in pieces.

The only bright spot in Bobby's life that year was meeting Milah Cartwright. Her family had just moved to Glasgow from Edinburgh. At first they were just good friends, talking about common interests but Milah surpised him that day by asking him if he'd be her boyfriend. Unfortunately Zozo the Terrible as the kids nicknamed him, happened to overhear the conversation and decided to have a little fun.

"Oooh Milah wants to go steady," Zozo teased. "Hey, if you want a real boyfriend, I'm the guy to talk to!"

"Why don't you get lost, ya freak!" Bobby yelled.

"Why don't you go fuck a duck? Oh, that's right...you don't even know how to use that little prick of yours yet, do ya? Let me show ya a real one," he said and proceeded to unzip his pants. The two younger children looked away, disgusted.

"You're gross!" Milah cried. "I wouldn't touch you with a ten foot pool!"

"Yeah and you probably have a disease!" Bobby added. "Get outta here."

"Or what?" Zozo asked, shoving Bobby against the wall. "You gonna beat me up? You don't have the balls."

Something inside the other boy snapped. He howled with rage and pounced on the older boy, pummeling his face with his fists. A crowd of children gathered around, cheering him on, glad to see Zozo the Terrible being the one getting pounded for once. Finally several teachers pulled the boys apart and dragged them down to the principal's office. They were all shocked to see such violent behavior from Bobby MacTavish and expressed their concerns to his mother, leading her to the decision to send him to the hospital. His father couldn't have cared less. He spent most his time drunk anyway.

Although she was told she wasn't allowed to speak to him again, Milah managed to convince her sister to drive her out to the hospital. Seeing her gave Bobby the encouragement he needed to concentrate on getting better so that they could let him out of the hospital. He was starting to learn some techniques that would help him control his anger but trying to convince the doctors he was no longer having visions was more difficult as he tended to have blackouts after each episode. The most terrifying one was when he saw that one of the boys he'd befriended was planning to take his own life. He tried to warn his doctor about it but they didn't believe him. A month later the boy was found dead in his room. He'd been pretending to take his medication and hid it, taking a massive dose of it at one time. After that incident Bobby never mentioned his visions again and every test the doctors performed on him couldn't explain his blackouts. They released him a year later.

Zozo The Terrible had been expelled from school but now Bobby felt everyone was looking at him like he was the new freak in school because he'd been in the hospital. Only Milah paid any attention to him and tried her best to defend his name to the other kids. When he wasn't with her he kept to himself, spending most of his time reading books and writing stories. He wrote mostly ghost stories.

In the summer of 1975, the residents of Glasgow were terrified when three children disappeared. The other children at Bobby's school were terrified and feared Zozo the Terrible was back. They all slept with one eye open and kept a close watch on their pets as pets had been a favorite target of the crazy kid's. When Bobby was walking home after seeing Milah he stopped when he saw a vision that terrified him. It was one of his classmates running, blood dripping the side of his head.

"Come back here, you little fucker!" he heard a voice snarl. "When I catch you, I'm gonna rip your fucking heart out!"

Bobby knew the location well. It was a place they all liked to play...when they still did play with him and he headed there, hoping he could find his classmate and help him before he got caught. When he finally got there, he couldn't see anything. He walked a little further and gasped when he saw his classmate on the ground. He wasn't moving.

"Hello Bobby," he heard the same menacing voice say from behind him. "Long time no see." He felt something hard strike him on the back of the head and then everything went dark and the most terrifying months of his life began.

He was kept in a room with no windows. It reminded him only a bit of the hospital but the similarities ended quickly. His toilet was a bucket, his bed the cold cement floor. A bowl of food was thrown into his room once a day along with a small jug of water. Bobby learned over those months how to make his portions last a day or two. The lack of a proper diet was only a minor discomfort compared to what awaited him when he was taken out of his prison. He'd never been beaten so badly in his entire life, not even by the miserable drunk he called a father. There were days when he wished he would just die and be put out of his misery but he was told it was more fun to keep him alive and watch him suffer. The only comfort he found was in his blackouts.

The bodies of the other three children abducted that summer were found in different locations around Glasgow, all of them severely beaten and malnourished. Soon rumors were flying around Glasgow that it wasn't Jimmy Zozo responsible for the horrors but Bobby MacTavish. After all, he had been locked up in the hospital, hadn't he? Maybe something in him snapped and he decided a little payback was in order. Milah and Bobby's mother argued passionately that Bobby was in no way responsible for the murders and he was missing too, possibly dead like the others.

Bobby wasn't sure how long he'd been in the torture chamber but one day while he was in his cell he made the decision that he was going to try to get away. He didn't know where his abductor was but he'd been gone all morning. Bobby ran around searching for a way out and found it. The only problem was that it was a long way down. He managed to find some rope in the room where his beatings took place and secured it to a pipe, making his descent. He wasn't aware that he was lacking in physical stregnth due to malnutrition and the beatings and lost his grip on the rope, falling to the ground, searing pains shooting through his leg and ankle. He limped several feet and collapsed to the ground in pain. He spotted a broken branch a few inches away and grabbed it, using it to keep on his feet. It took him several days to get back to his hometown and when someone finally did see him, they barely recognized him. He wouldn't even recognize himself when he looked in the mirror.

Any rumors that Bobby MacTavish may have been responsible for the deaths of the three other children were squashed when the reports of his injuries spread throughout the town. The doctors were amazed that he manged to survive so long...managed to survive at all. The boy was as close to death as anyone they'd ever seen and had been through hell. The police questioned him about what happened to him but he couldn't tell them very much, either out of fear or he didn't remember it.

Months after Bobby's abduction his father died and Carol decided it would be better for her son if she got him as far away from Glasgow and their past as possible. They moved to England and changed their last name to Gold. That day Bobby MacTavish died and RJ Gold was born. RJ still had his visions and revisited those terrifying three months in his nightmares or through the stories he wrote.

He married Milah as soon as they graduated college and decided to move to the United States where RJ felt he would have more success as a writer. The horror market was highly competitive and while he waited to get an acceptance letter instead of a rejection letter, RJ opened a pawnshop and antique store to support himself, his wife and their small son. He'd worked in an antique store and pawnshop in England and learned the business from the ground up. When Neal was a teenager RJ finally received a letter from a publisher interested in his work yet he still insisted on privacy. Although he was older, he didn't want anyone to connect RJ Gold with Bobby MacTavish, especially his tormentor. He was still out there, RJ was certain of it. He still had his visions but he tried to ignore them.

His marriage to Milah collapsed five years earlier when RJ's visions and blackouts started occuring several times a day. Milah didn't believe ESP was possible and she was getting tired of him holding onto the past. They got into fierce shouting matches but he never raised a hand to her. Concerned that RJ was having a nervous breakdown, Milah had him committed. His stay in the hospital was shorter this time because he agreed to regular counseling sessions with Dr. Archie Hopper. Hopper diagnosed his condition as post traumatic stress disorder and prescribed him medications to help with the blackouts, nightmares and anxiety. He stopped having his visions and blackouts as often as he once did. Then he had the vision of David Nolan being abducted and the terrors of his own experience returned along with the physical symptoms. Next was Ashley Boyd...now it was Regina Mills.

When RJ opened his eyes he was dismayed to find himself in the hospital yet again. He turned his head and his eyes locked with the most beautiful pair of blue ones he'd ever seen, belonging to a beautiful young woman with auburn hair.

"Mr. Gold?" she asked softly. "I'm Detective Belle French with the Storybrooke Police Department. I'd like to ask you a few questions...if you're feeling up to it."

"I don't care if he is or not, he can answer them anyway," he heard the blond woman sitting beside her say coldly as she flashed her own badge."

"I've seen you before...in the library," RJ said to Detective French.

"I do like to read," she confessed. "Now...Mr Gold...you were found unconscious on Giant Road after making a 911 call reporting that Regina Mills had been abducted. How do you know she was? Did you see it happen?"

_I saw enough,_ he thought, hesitating. Should he tell her the truth and risk ridicule or lie his head off.

"No...but I...ahh saw the horse and her belongings...Regina loved that horse. She never would've left him there alone...like that...and I ahhh...have been watching the news about the other two kids."

"You know Regina personally?" the blond woman he now knew as Detective Emma Swan asked.

"We've talked a few times," he admitted.

"Mr Gold, can you give us a breakdown of your day today?"

"Are you suggesting **I** had something to do with this?" he asked angrily, glaring at her.

"You tell me," Emma challenged.

"Look, Ms. Swan...I may write about horror but I would _not_ harm anyone, especially a child!" he yelled.

"Mr. Gold, please understand that we're only trying to do our jobs. The lives of three teenagers are at stake," Belle reminded him calmly and reached out to touch his hand. Once she did, a vision flashed before his eyes, one he'd _never_ had before. He could see the two of them together in his bed and it wasn't to sleep. He shook his head to clear it. "Are you all right?" he heard her ask him.

_Okay, now even__**I'm**__starting to wonder if I'm crazy. Why in the hell am I having visions like THAT about her when she and her smartassed partner think I had something to do with those kids being missing!? _

"It's nothing," he said quickly while Emma eyed him suspiciously. "Did you see any dents on my car from hitting a horse? I can answer that for you...NO!" he went on before she replied. "And I had nothing to do with the Boyd girl or the Nolan boy's disappearances either. Instead of wasting your time harassing me, why don't you get out there and find the person who actually _is_ responsible?"

"You're hiding something," Emma accused.

"Emma..." Belle began. She had a sense about people and it was telling her that RJ was telling the truth about not having anything to do with the teenagers being missing. Yet, Emma had what she called her superpower and it was the ability to tell when someone was lying and she was rarely wrong. "Mr. Gold, we'd greatly appreciate your cooperation."

He found himself giving a somewhat complete narrative of his day, omitting the blackout while the two detectives took notes on the small pads they carried with them. They stood up. "Mr. Gold, if you can think of anything else...or remember anything else, please give us a call," Belle said as she handed him her card. He tucked it into his wallet on the bedside table.

"Goodbye Detective French...Swan..." he said and the two women left the room.

"You know," Emma was saying as she was getting a can of soda out of the vending machine. "His books may be good but he's a dick and he's lying his head off about something. Don't tell me you doubt it."

"He is hiding something. Let's go. We have to go talk to Mayor Mills."

"I am not looking forward to that conversation," Emma grumbled.

"Neither am I," Belle agreed.

Cora Mills, like Herman, had her own ideas about what happened to her daughter and they didn't include a reclusive horror writer.

"Daniel Thacker." She said the name like it was an obscenity. "I kept telling her to stay away from that boy. She didn't listen to me and now look what's happened!" she sobbed. "I don't care what it takes: you find him and make him tell you where my Regina is!"

"Okay," Emma said while they were driving out to the stable where Daniel Thacker worked. "So far we have two suspects: the dickhead writer and the stable boy. Both knew Regina and I bet if we keep digging we can link them to the Boyd girl and the Nolan boy."

"Let's just see what we can find out from Daniel Thacker," Belle suggested.

When they got to the stable Daniel's boss informed them that he hadn't shown up for work that day and numerous calls to his house went unanswered. The two women raced over to the address his employer had given them. His car was in the driveway.

"Daniel Thacker! Storybrooke Police. We'd like to come in and ask you a few questions," Belle called out as she knocked on the door.

"Belle, I'm not liking the looks of this," Emma said.

"Neither am I!"

"What's going on?" they heard someone ask behind them.

The two women identified themselves.

"I'm Ruby Lucas, Dan's neighbor," the girl said.

"Have you seen him today, Miss Lucas?" Belle inquired.

"No...I just came to tell him about Regina. I don't think he knows yet." She took a key out of her purse. "He gave me this because I house sit for him sometimes. He won't mind." She unlocked the door and opened it, giving a bloodcurdling scream at what she saw inside. The two detectives turned around to look, guns drawn.

Daniel Thacker lay on the floor inside, his arms stretched out at his sides, his wrists sliced open. On the floor a few feet away was a photograph of Regina riding Rocinante.

Their case had just gotten a lot more complicated.


	4. Chapter 3

It was was the town's worst kept secret that Regina, the mayor's daughter was in love with Daniel Thacker, a man four years her senior. Daniel worked in the stables at the farm where Regina's precious Rocinante was kept. RJ had even seen them together a few times and knew the boy was risking Cora having his ass thrown in jail but Regina seemed happy with him. Now she was missing and her precious Rocinante was dead.

He was struggling to eat what the nurse called his breakfast when another vision flashed before his eyes. He could see Daniel Thacker lying in the front hallway while someone wearing a black hooded sweatshirt kneeled over him, holding a syringe.

"I assume you know what this is...being a horse caretaker and all," the same chilling voice RJ had been hearing for the last several weeks was saying. "And you also know what it does. And what it does...is allow me to do this."

The syringe was tucked into the pocket of the sweatshirt and a knife taken out, slicing open Daniel's wrists. The killer watched the boy bleed for several minutes before he stood up, placed a picture of Regina on her prized horse near the body and left.

"Dad...dammit, where the hell are all the nurses and doctors in this fucking place...Dad...come on...wake up!" RJ could hear his son yelling and for the third time that day the boy was shaking him.

"Neal...fine...can you please...stop bloody shaking me!" RJ cried.

"It's the only way I can wake you up!" Neal exclaimed. "What the hell's going on, Dad? The cops are outside your room right now. They said you called 911 and said Regina Mills is missing and you were found passed out near her dead horse. You blacked out again there too, didn't you?"

"I..."

"You did. Enough is enough. Dr. Hopper isn't doing you one bit of good."

"What are you going to do...commit me?!" RJ asked angrily. "I am not getting fucking locked up in a fucking nuthouse again, _do you understand me_?

"Dad, you need help..."

"I AM NOT CRAZY!" RJ shouted.

"What the hell's going on in here?" Emma demanded as she and Belle burst into the room with their guns drawn.

"Nothing that concerns _you!_" RJ barked. "My son and I are having a _disagreement." _

"What we heard sounded like more than a disagreement Mr. Gold," Belle said calmly. "And I might add rather interesting. You've been in a psychiatric hospital? What for?" she demanded, her blue eyes locking with his.

"That's my personal business," he said coldly.

"Ummm...my father's had some...issues..."

"If I want them to know, I'll tell them myself!"

"Or we can just find out," Emma reminded him.

"You wouldn't believe me. No one ever has," he muttered.

"Dad, please just tell them!" Neal pleaded. "If you won't, I will."

"All right!" he cried, throwing up his hands in defeat. "I have...blackouts...have been having them since I was boy and I am not always unconscious. There have been times when I've had them standing up. I was...told they're...side effects of something I experienced then but they started occuring long before that...accompanied by...visions."

"Visions? As in ESP type visions?" Emma demanded. "Are you seriously telling us you're some kind of psychic? That's the worst line of bullshit I've heard this week."

"Mock it if you wish, Detective Swan but it is the truth," RJ said stiffly then glanced at his son who had the same skeptical expression on his wife. "I wanted to tell you so many times Neal...but I was afraid you would react the way everyone else has...by putting me in the hospital."

"Dad...this sounds..."

"Crazy. I know son. I've heard that my whole life. I'm used to it."

"Dad, these...visions you have...you had them before you were abducted, didn't you?"

RJ nodded.

"Wait a moment. Mr Gold, are you saying you were abducted? When did this happen?" Belle inquired softly.

"1975. He was fourteen," Neal supplied. "I don't know much about what happened...he doesn't like to talk about it to me."

"And I still can't," RJ croaked. "Son, would you please...go do to the cafeteria for me and get something for lunch. I'll need to talk to Detectives French and Swan alone."

"Dad..."

"Neal...please...this is not for you to hear." RJ begged. His son nodded sadly and left the room. He wasn't even comfortable recalling the most terrifying months of his life with two strangers. His throat suddenly felt dry and when he picked up the cup to take a drink of water, his hands were trembling so much he dropped it. Belle kneeled down and picked it up, taking it into the bathroom to rinse it out and filled it with fresh water. She handed it to him.

"Where did this abduction take place, Mr. Gold?"

"In Scotland...and my last name isn't Gold. It's MacTavish," he confessed. "My mother changed it when we left Scotland...I guess to try to put it behind us."

"What happened?" Emma asked.

RJ sighed deeply and began telling his story, what he remembered of it, shaking the entire time. He couldn't stand letting complete strangers see him in this fragile condition nor could he stand being accused of harming children. He couldn't bear the thought of the Storybrooke children enduring the same horrors he and his classmates had in Glasgow years ago.

"This Jimmy Zozo was a suspect in the murders but never charged?" Belle inquired. RJ nodded.

"They didn't have enough on him...thanks to me," RJ said bitterly. "I had so many blackouts during my captivity that I didn't know where I was half the time. If you don't want to believe me you can call the authorities in Scotland or look it up on the damned internet. That's what most people do these days anyway."

"This...voice you say you hear when you have your blackouts...does it sound like this Zozo kid?" Emma asked, thinking that what the man was having wasn't blackouts at all but his memories of his own abduction returning. The idea that both abductions could've been done by the same person seemed strange but she'd been on the force long enough to know that strange things sometimes occured.

"I'm not sure. I haven't heard it so long."

Emma's phone rang. She excused herself and went out into the hall to answer it while Belle stayed in the room with RJ.

"You're sure Graham? Both kids? Both places? Well, looks like Mr. Gold has a little more explaining to do, now doesn't he? You just let me know when the DA gives us the word and I'll haul his ass in!" she said and returned to the room. "Okay Gold, let's cut the bullshit. Just when were you gonna tell us you were the last person David Nolan and Ashley Boyd spoke to before they were abducted? Both of those numbers were registered to you."

"What!" they heard Neal cry out from the doorway. "Dad...it's not true...is it?"

RJ glanced over at his son and nodded slowly. "Yes, it is."

"Why...why did you call them?"

"To warn them!" he cried.

"Do you really expect us to believe that...now?" Belle asked angrily. "Where did you take them?!" she shouted.

"I'm innocent!" he protested. "Neal...you know me...you know I would _never_ harm a child!"

"Dad, we're going to get you some help...I promise," Neal croaked.

"Y...You think I did this?" RJ asked brokenly.

"I...I don't know what to think anymore. You...you've been acting so strange..."

"I just _told_ you why!" he screamed. "I'm not crazy!"

"If you think acting insane is going to keep you out of prison, you've got another think coming," Belle said icily. "We've already got enough to arrest you on suspicion. The_best_ thing you can do right now is tell us where David, Ashley and Regina are and if they're alive. If they're not...nothing's going to save you from getting the needle, you son of a bitch!"

"I DID NOT KILL THEM!"

Hearing the shouting, a nurse ran into the room and ordered everyone to leave, followed by RJ's doctor. He emerged from the room minutes later, enraged.

"What was going on in there? I just had to sedate my patient."

"That might be a good thing," Belle muttered. "When he wakes up he'll need to be restrained anyway and there will be a guard posted at his door at all times."

"You...you're arresting him?" Neal asked her.

"I'm sorry, Neal. We have no choice. The cellphone evidence plus his strange behavior makes him our best suspect right now. I know this is difficult...but we need to ask you some questions about your father's behavior recently and I think it would be best if we went down to the station."

"Okay...okay," Neal whispered.

In town eighteen year old Ruby Lucas was walking into the woods to meet up with her latest boyfriend. She knew her grandmother would kill her if she found out she snuck out of the house but she didn't care. She liked Gus and wanted to be with him even though he was older. She froze when she heard someone howling.

_"Owwww...Who's that I see walking in these woods? _

_Why it's Little Red Riding Hood_

_Hey, there Little Red Riding Hood_

_You sure are looking good _

_You're everything a big bad wolf could want..." _a man's voice sang out.

"Very funny Gus!" Ruby shouted. "Now get out here before I kick your ass!"

She felt something hard strike her on the back of the head and she collapsed to the ground. The man continued to sing as he carried her back to his vehicle.

_"Listen to me_

_Little Red Riding Hood_

_I don't think little big girls should_

_Go walking in these spooky old woods alone..."_


	5. Chapter 4

As Belle listened to Neal Gold's account of his father's activities during the time frames of the disappearances, she realized some things weren't making sense. He'd called David Nolan when his son wasn't in the room but immediately after that call, Neal recalled finding his father having one of his 'blackouts'. The day after Ashley Boyd vanished, Neal found his father unconscious in his office still in his pajamas. He also had another 'blackout' after hearing the news of Ashley's disappearance on television. Gold's car had no evidence from the Mills abduction either.

"My dad's not a killer...but there is something wrong with him...maybe...all this stuff about those kids...keeps reminding him of what happened to him." Neal said sadly.

They were already in contact with the police in Glasgow, just waiting on them to fax the files they had on RJ's abduction years before. Emma was working on trying to get access to his patient files from his two hospital stays as well as his files from Dr. Hopper whom Neal revealed his father was seeing for his nightmares and blackouts. She still felt Gold was somehow involved in the abductions, possibly an accomplice with his deteriorating mental state the perfect way to try to throw them off the scent.

They'd just finished speaking with Neal and released him when Hunter informed them that another girl was missing, this time Ruby Lucas and she'd been missing for three hours. Normally a disappearance wasn't treated as a missing persons case until twenty-four hours later but since there had already been three disappearances that were clear cases of abduction, no one was taking chances.

"It's not RJ Gold, Emma," Belle pointed out. "We were right there with him at the hospital when Ruby Lucas was taken."

"That doesn't mean he can't be involved. The guy's whacked, Belle. Don't let him trick you into feeling sorry for him."

Belle was frustrated. They were running out of time and she was tired of chasing dead ends. If by some miracle of fate RJ Gold's blackouts were indeed ESP induced visions then he was her only chance of finding those kids alive. She rattled off a quick goodbye to Emma and sped over to the hospital. There were two guards posted at the door as ordered.

"Hunter wants you to go back to the station. I'll take over from here," Belle lied. The two officers eyed with her suspicion yet they knew she outranked them. They left the hospital minutes later. Belle opened the door to RJ's room. One of his wrists was handcuffed to the bed and he lay there staring up at the ceiling. "Mr. Gold...RJ...?" she called out.

No response.

"RJ!" she yelled, shaking him. "What are you seeing? You have to tell me! There's another girl missing and I have to find her. I have to find all of them and you're the only one who can help me!"

_"So until you get to Grandma's place_

_I think you oughta walk with me and be safe_

_Gonna keep my sheep suit on_  
_'Til I'm sure that you've been shown_

_That I can be trusted walking with you alone..."_ she heard him singing.

Belle cringed. Ruby was called Little Red Riding Hood as an insult for her supposed loose behavior around town and some people went as far as singing that old song to her.

"RJ, please...snap out of it!" she cried, continuing to shake him. "Where is he taking her? Is she with the others?"

"He'll keep her til he's broken her...just like the others," he muttered. "Just like me...he wants to finish what he started..."

"Who is it, RJ?" she cried, taking her handcuff key out of her pocket and unlocking the one around his wrist. As soon as it was free, he reached out and grabbed her arm.

"You believe me?" he asked. "Why now? Before you could've cared less what I had to say!"

"Ruby Lucas was taken while we were here talking to you. These visions...they're of them...and him, aren't they?"

He sat up. "I can hear his voice in my head and see what he sees. But I see what they see too...it's my punishment," he said sadly.

"For what?" she inquired softly.

"I should be dead."

"You mean, you weren't the only one abducted that year?"

"No."

"What happened to the others?"

"Dead...all of them dead."

"I'm getting you out of here," she said, walking over to the closet and taking out his clothes. "I need to find those kids and you're going to help me."

"Belle, I only see what they see. It doesn't tell me exactly where they are," he pointed out while she tossed his clothes onto the bed.

"But you see what _he_ sees too and maybe sooner or later he's going to slip up and give us a clue to where he's hiding them. Get dressed."

"With you standing here? I think not."

"You don't have anything I haven't seen before. Get dressed or I'll do it for you!" she threatened.

He rolled his eyes and got to work detaching all of the monitoring devices from his arms and chest. Belle immediately turned the machine off the second it started beeping to alert the staff to a problem and opened the door to peek out into the hallway.

"Are you dressed yet?" she asked impatiently.

"Yes, dammit!" he grumbled.

As soon as she could see there was no one around, she tugged RJ by the arm and raced down the hall to the back steps. It was difficult for him to keep up with her with his bad leg and still a bit tired from the sedative they'd given him but he managed. They'd just gotten in the car and she was speeding out of the parking lot when her phone rang. RJ picked it up and looked at the display.

"It's your smartassed partner."

She snatched it out of his hand.

"Have you lost your fucking mind?" Emma was screaming. "You broke that lunatic out of the hospital?! Hunter's gonna have your badge for this!"

"He's innocent, Emma."

"Belle, you stupid bitch! He's gonna kill you! You have to listen to me," Emma pleaded.

"No, he's going to help me find out where the kids are. You can spend all your time climbing up the wrong beanstalk if you want but his visions are real and they can tell us where to find the others."

"Belle, you don't know what I found out!"

"Tell me later," she said and disconnected the call.

Emma slammed her fist down on her desk in fury. It seemed that Storybrooke wasn't the only place where a series of abductions and murders. They seemed to disappear _everywhere_ RJ Gold went yet he wasn't charged or even a suspect in any of them. Emma shoved her gun into it's holster and stuffed several extra clips into her pocket. Now her partner was in danger along with the kids and she was going do what she had to in order to save both.

Neal pulled into the driveway of the house and walked up to the front door. When he took out his keys to unlock it, they slipped out of his hand. He kneeled down to retrieve them and felt something hard strike him on the back of the head. He slumped to the ground.

As Belle was driving toward RJ's home, she heard him scream. She slammed her foot on the brakes and brought the car to a stop. RJ was sitting in the passenger seat staring into space with tears streaming down his cheeks.

"He's got my boy!" he sobbed. "Neal!"

"Oh my God!" Belle moaned.

Now it was personal. Belle suddenly found herself wondering if it had been right from the beginning.


	6. Chapter 5

RJ raced to the front door of his house, falling to his knees when he saw his son's keys lying on the sidewalk in a pool of blood. Belle crouched down beside him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"My son..." he cried. "I...I can't lose him...he's all I have..."

"RJ, listen to me...the best way you can help Neal is to help _me_ find out who had taken him and where," she coaxed. "Who has them? It's the same man who took you when you were a teenager, isn't it?"

It was as if he didn't hear her. "He's not a man, he's THE MONSTER!" RJ screamed, his voice sounding childlike now. He huddled in a corner on the sidewalk and wrapped his arms around his knees. "I told them what he did...and they took him away but he came back...Mummy promised me he wasn't going to hurt me again...she PROMISED ME...and she LIED! S...She had them lock me up because she thought I was gonna be like him. RJ had to beat Zozo up...he was doing gross stuff in front of Milah and he used to pick on everybody in school but he didn't kill all our pets...that was _him '_cause he made me watch him while he cut my goldfish up and _ate it!" _

"RJ..."

"Why're you calling me RJ? He's not here. I'm Bobby. And I'm not supposed to talk to strangers...Mummy says so," his voice still childlike and now his demeanor changed to that of a frightened little boy. Belle gasped with shock as she realized what she was seeing although her mind was having difficulty processing it because she'd always thought it was fake. Neal told them earlier that his father sometimes sounded childlike after having nightmares and now she knew why. When he recalled too much of his traumatic past he regressed into that abused boy again.

"Bobby...my name is Belle...and I'm not a stranger. I'm a police officer. See," she said and handed him her badge. "Can you tell me who hurt you?"

"Not supposed to tell...if I do he'll kill me!" he wailed.

"I'm not going to let anyone hurt you again!" she said firmly.

"You promise? You're not gonna let em zap me either?"

"Zap you? Bobby...what do you mean? Who zapped you?"

"The men in the white coats. They said they had to do it to get the hall...hallu...the things outta my head and it really hurt."

"Bobby, sweetie, please, who hurt you besides the men in the white coats?"

"Gordie."

"Gordie? Who is Gordie?"

"My big brother...but he's not my big brother...HE'S THE MONSTER! He was always doing stuff to scare me...he cut up my goldfish and ate it...he...he ran over Missus O'Brien's kitty with the lawnmower and said it was an accident...he lied. He did it on purpose and told me if I told on him he was gonna run me over. He...he...held a pillow over my face...I couldn't breathe...Daddy had to pull him off and they took him away."

"Oh my God," Belle moaned. "Bobby...did Gordie hurt you after they took him away?"

"He...he was in the place with the men in the white coats too...he said he could get me anytime he wanted to 'cause he picked the lock on his door. He...he made my friend take too many pills...I tried to tell them and they wouldn't listen to me...they zapped me cause they said it was in my head. I wanted to get out...get away from Gordie..so I didn't tell them anything anymore."

As difficult as it was, Belle knew she had to try to bring RJ back. Bobby didn't know where the others were but RJ did because, terrifying as it sounded, a telepathic link had been forged between him, his abuser and the other victims.

"Bobby, please listen to me...you're safe now. I won't let Gordie hurt you again but I really need to speak to RJ. Can you find him for me? Please! His son is missing and he's the only one who knows where he and the other children are." She took him in her arms. "Go to sleep, Bobby and let RJ and me take care of you," she murmured.

"He always takes care of me. He's tough...he beat Zozo up and he got us away from Gordie..."

Emma Swan felt like a first class idiot as she read the information she'd been sent from Scotland and talked to Dr. Hopper who did not feel comfortable breaking doctor patient confidentiality. The killer and kidnapper was not Jeremy Zozo. He was convicted of murdering someone else when he was eighteen and had been in prison until he was killed out in the yard in 1986. Nor was it RJ Gold but the killer was someone he'd known... and feared...his elder brother Gordon and according to the files she'd gotten, Gordon MacTavish had a history of violence against others that started when he was ten years old, the brother three years his junior his favorite target along with animals. After the boys' father caught Gordon trying to smother his younger brother in his sleep they had the boy committed to Murryhill Psychiatric Hospital. Gordon escaped the summer Robert was abducted.

Unfortunately, after RJ lashed out at Jeremy Zozo his parents made the mistake of sending the younger son to the very same hospital his former abuser resided in, subjecting him to electroconvulsive therapy to rid him of his 'hallucinations'. RJ also showed signs of physical abuse in the hospital only the doctors claimed they were self-inflicted never suspecting that somehow Gordon MacTavish was able to get out of his locked room and continue torturing his brother. Many times Robert regressed into the toddler stage when forced to recall the trauma of his early childhood.

"So you're saying Doc...he becomes a _kid_ again when he remembers what happened?" Emma exclaimed. "That's what his blackouts are...him being a kid? That doesn't make sense. Neal said he didn't do that all the time."

"It's possible that we may be dealing with more than one personality," Dr. Hopper explained.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! C'mon...multiple personalities? One of the freakin Hillside Stranglers tried to put on that act and it was pure bullshit!"

"In Robert's case it isn't. He has at least one other personality other than his own and it is his younger self. He may not even be aware of its existence. It also may be the one that has the memories of his childhood trauma and all that has been going on is forcing his child personality to the surface more."

"All this time...it's been his _brother,_ Emma whispered. "You're coming with me Doc because I have a feeling I'm gonna need you if we find Gold." She grabbed her backup gun out of the desk drawer and concealed it under her pant leg while the other one remained in the holster.

What knowledge Belle had of multiple personality disorder only came from books or what she'd seen in the movies and on TV. In order to talk to RJ she needed to convince the half of him that was Bobby to sleep and he would only do this if he was certain someone could protect him. She held him tighter, speaking to him gently, finally seeing him relax and close his eyes. When he opened them again his demeanor changed back to his adult self.

"Belle...w...what happened?" he asked.

"You blacked out," she explained.

He detached himself from her embrace and crawled over to where his son's keys lay. "He has my son, Belle!"

"I know who he is now...but I need _you_ to help me find him."

"Who is it?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"Gordon. Do you know who he is?"

RJ stood up, his hands clenched into fists. "I'm not going to let him do to my son what he did to me. I'll see him in hell first."

"Do you know where he's taken him...and the others?"

RJ concentrated. "Back in Glasgow...he kept us in an abandoned house. He was always hiding out in places that were abandoned because no one could see what he was doing."

"All right...let's go."

"Let me...go to the bathroom first."

"Okay." she said, wondering why he suddenly felt nature calling at a time like this but she wasn't going to waste any more time dwelling on it. She got in the car and started the engine, hoping he wouldn't take too long.

RJ walked directly past the bathroom and into his bedroom. He opened the closet and took out a shoebox. Inside was his father's old pistol. He hadn't fired it it in years but thankfully it still worked. There was also a box of shells he didn't remember purchasing. They looked new. He tore the box open and started loading the shells into the pistol and tucked it into the pocket of his coat.

Once he was in the car, he closed his eyes and concentrated. Up until now he'd considered his gift a curse. Now he had to think of it as blessing for without it it would be much more difficult for them to find his son and the others. He knew from his own experiences that once his brother got bored torturing his victims, he disposed of them and sought out new ones. The boys were always the first to die. He kept the girls alive longer and tonight he'd gotten bored with David Nolan. He could see his brother in what he called his work room, setting up for the moment he would kill the boy. Because he enjoyed having an audience, he would force the girls to watch. He could see them all, locked in animal cages, his son still unconscious.

_Someone's going to die tonight Gordie...and it's not going to be me, those kids or my son!_ he thought angrily while Belle sped off going on what few details he could give her from what he was seeing both through the eyes of killer and victims.


	7. Chapter 6

It was almost showtime. After so many years of setting his traps, he was ready to catch the one person who'd managed to outwit him, even if his little brother hadn't been in his right mind when he did it. It didn't matter. All the voices in Bobby's head would shut up when he was dead anyway. Carrying a bucket of water, he walked over to the last cage in the corner and dumped the contents onto the occupant.

"Wakey waaaaakeeyyyyy!" he called out. There was some rustling inside the cage and the occupant glared at him through the bars. "Couldn't let you sleep all day. The show's about to start."

"Who the fuck _are_ you?" Neal demanded angrily.

"Oh, you mean Bobby didn't tell you? I'm not surprised. He doesn't even remember who he is half the time let alone remember who _I_ am," Gordon MacTavish said and laughed. "Allow me to introduce myself. The name's Gordon MacTavish...I'm your uncle, Neal."

"Bullshit."

"Nope, it's the truth. Bobby's my little brother. My little pain in the ass brother that should be dead...like all the others...but the son of a bitch got away from me."

"_You_ were the one who kidnapped him!?"

"He's been scared of me his whole life...and that's just the way I wanted it...so he never forgot I could kill him anytime I wanted to but making him watch other people suffer has been more fun. Part of what made him forget everything, even that our parents locked him up in the same hospital with me. They thought I couldn't get to him there but I did...just to give him some reminders of how much I wanted that sniveling little brat dead."

"What the hell could he have possibly done to you?"

"He never left me alone! Let's go do this Gordie, let's go do that! I didn't _want_ to do the things he did. They were stupid child's games. I liked what _I_ did. I loved seeing the look on his little face when I hacked his goldfish into pieces and ate it. I loved giving that old bitch next door a massive heart attack when I ran over that fucking cat that used to climb through my window and piss all over my things! Bobby kept his mouth shut about that...because I told him if he said a word about it, he'd be the next thing I ran over with the lawnmower. There was no one to stop me...our father was drunk half the time and our mum...well, she was too busy living in her own little world to know what I was doing. Then that little shit got me caught the _one_ fucking time our old man was sober and they locked me up. I thought I'd never get another chance to kill him but my parents didn't disappoint me. They locked _him_ up for beating up that kid because they thought he was going to be like me. He'll never be me. He's too much of a chicken shit. And he can't even write a decent killer either."

"Why doesn't my father remember you?" Neal decided to try to keep the bastard talking. As long as he was talking, the others were safe.

"A fortunate side effect of being zapped too many times."

"Zapped?"

"You know...bzzztttt...they thought he was having hallucinations so they figured they'd zap em out of him. Bobby's probably got more holes in his brain than a piece of Swiss cheese. But then again, he didn't have much of a brain to begin with."

"You sick fuck..." Neal whispered. "You think it's funny to beat up on a little kid? You're not gonna be laughing when my father finds you."

"He'll crack as soon as he sees me or remembers me...he always does."

"...It's just down that road," RJ was saying to Belle when she made a turn down a gravel road on the outskirts of town. Belle brought the car to a stop and got out, drawing her gun.

"You need to stay here," she told him.

"Like hell I do! He has my son!" he protested. "And you don't know what that son of a bitch is capable of. I'm going with you and the only way you're going to stop me is by shooting me!"

Realizing that arguing with him was pointless, the two of them approached the cabin Gordon was using as his hideout. As Belle was about to open the front door, RJ grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"What..." she whispered. He pressed a finger to his lips and pointed upward to where an axe was tied to the porch ceiling, triggered to swing down when the doorknob was turned.

"Watch where you step," he whispered back. "He has traps everywhere."

They ran around to the back of the cabin. RJ picked up a rock and threw it at one of the windows. The glass shattered, triggering an alarm inside the cab. RJ grabbed Belle's hand and the two of them darted behind a tree.

Gordon smiled when the alarm sounded then turned to Neal. "He couldn't have picked a better time for a reunion. You stay right here. I'll be back."

Regina snorted from inside her own cage. "It's not like we're going anywhere, asshole!" Gordon stepped up to her cage, reaching in and grabbing her arm, smashing her face against the bars. "I'm gonna _enjoy_ cutting you up you smart mouthed little bitch!"

"And _I'm_ gonna enjoy seeing them either hauling your ass off to jail or killing you!" she sneered.

Neal had to admire her. He had to admire all of them. They refused to let him see their fear and he wouldn't allow Gordon to see _his._ All his life his father drilled into his head that you never allowed an enemy to see your fear. It gave them power over you, he said. It wasn't until he found out about his father's abduction that he understood why. It was how he'd managed to survive his captivity and eventually escape.

Gordon approached the back of the cabin and saw the broken glass in the window of his bedroom, looking around. "Are we playing hide and seek now, Bobby?" he asked with a smirk.

"Belle, go!" RJ whispered urgently from their hiding place. "There's a door to the basement that he doesn't have trapped. "Get them out of there. I'll distract him."

"But I called Emma and she's on her way..."

"She won't make it in time. You have to go...now!"

"All right but for God's sake...be careful!" she pleaded.

He didn't give a damn about his own safety anymore. Hers, his son's and the other children were the only ones whose safety he was concerned about. Belle glanced back at him one last time worry creasing her brow. She knew he was trying to be brave for them but what would happen when he came face to face with the monster from his childhood. Would he hold his ground or regress back into that frightened little boy? She raced into the basement and found all of the children and Neal locked in cages.

"Belle, where's my dad?" Neal asked.

"He's outside…with him..." Belle said as she approached David's cage. All of them had padlocks on them and she had no doubts in her mind Gordon had the key on him. She would have to find some way to break them and using her gun wouldn't work. She would have to be standing farther away from it and didn't want to risk missing and hitting one of them in the process. She looked around the workshop and spotted a bolt cutter hanging on the wall. She grabbed them and started trying to cut through the lock on David's cage. Her arm muscles strained from the pressure but she ignored the pain and allowed her adrenaline to kick in and the lock snapped. The teenager crawled out of the cage and took the cutters from her to free Regina then Ruby and Neal.

"Neal, take Gordon's car and drive the kids into town," she instructed.

"But...my dad..."

"I promised him I would get you out of here safely. Don't make me break it. Now go before he gets back!" she cried. They wasted no more time. Neal grabbed the keys to the truck and ran out of the basement with the teenagers in tow while Belle went in search of RJ and Gordon.

Gordon cursed when he heard his truck start up and speed off.

"Won;t be having your little show today," RJ said as he stepped out from behind a tree.

"You're looking a bit haggard Bobby."

"I don't go by that anymore, _Gordon_," RJ said coldly.

"Trying to be brave now? That's new. Before I could make you bawl your eyes out or piss yourself just looking at you."

"Well I'm not a child anymore."

"Really?" Gordon threw himself at RJ, knocking him to the ground. "I hate you, you fucking bastard!' he said, wrapping his hands around RJ's throat. RJ kneed him in the groin. His brother rolled off him, howling with pain then reached for RJ's weak ankle, wrapping his hand around it. RJ screamed as pain shot through his leg. He sank to his knees. "How's _that_ feel, prick?"

"I'm…gonna…fuckin…kill you!" RJ hissed.

"Hold it right there!" Belle shouted from behind them, her gun pointed at the back of Gordon's head. "Stand up you asshole and put your hands behind your head."

Gordon smirked. "My pleasure."

RJ turned his head in time to see Gordon picking up a rock.

"Belle!" he shouted, painfully rising to his feet.

Gordon spun around and threw the rock as Belle fired her gun. It struck her on the head, forcing her to miss her target. The bullet struck RJ in the shoulder, stunning him and Belle collapsed to the ground unconscious.

"Stupid bitch," Gordon said kneeling over her and detaching the gun from her hand. He raised it and pointed it at her head. "You wanna see this Bobby? You'll enjoy it."

"I'll enjoy this more," RJ growled, pulling his own gun out of his coat and firing a single shot. Gordon fell on top of Belle with a bullet hole in the back of his head. RJ ran over and pulled him off of her, taking her into his arms. "Belle? Belle!" he cried, shaking her. "You gotta wake up Belle….we're safe now…RJ killed the monster!" he chanted as the child still trapped inside him took control again. "Please, Belle. It's scary out here and I wanna go home!" he sobbed.

"There's Belle's car!" Emma cried, slamming on the brakes of her own and jumping out with Archie Hopper close at her heels. They could hear someone crying and ran into the woods in the direction where the sound was coming from. Emma gasped in horror as she saw RJ kneeling on the ground holding an unconscious Belle, whose head was bleeding while he had blood on his own shoulder, sobbing. A few feet away from them lay Gordon MacTavish, a bullet hole in the back of his head "RJ?"

He looked up. "I'm Bobby. RJ's not here." he said in a child's voice. "Who're you?"

"My name's Emma. Bobby...what happened...is Belle?"

"The monster hurt Belle...and he hurt me too but RJ killed the monster. I don't want Belle to die, Emma. She's my friend..."

Archie kneeled down beside him. "Belle's not going to die Bobby. We're going to take her to the hospital so she can get better and you have to go with us too."

"You promise she won't die?"

"I promise."

They could hear an ambulance approaching along with Neal who had the other children in Gordon's truck. Neal jumped out of the truck and raced over to where his father was sitting. Emma attempted to pull him back.

"Neal, stop!"

"Fuck you! That's my dad! Dad!"

RJ looked up and smiled through his tears. "RJ killed the monster, Neal!"

"What? Dad...what are you talking about?"

"I'm not your Dad Neal. RJ's your dad. I'm too little to have a kid. I'm Bobby."

_"What the hell's wrong with him?!"_ Neal cried.

"Why you yelling at me?" RJ asked. "I don't like you anymore. You scare me!" He looked over at Archie. "Make him go away!"

Neal backed away, shocked. "Oh my God...it's true...I didn't believe Mom when she told me but it is...that's why..."

Emma placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "You didn't know?"

"No," Neal moaned. "I mean...I've seen him act strange when he has his blackouts but Mom said sometimes living with him was like living with a kid and I never knew what she meant." He glanced over at Dr. Hopper. "Can you help him?"

"I'm going to try, Neal," the doctor assured him. He kneeled beside RJ again. "Bobby….we're going to take you and Belle to the hospital and get you fixed up then….then we're going to see about getting you home. Would you like that?"

He smiled again. "Will I be able to see Belle if I go home? I want to. She's my friend."

"You can see Belle as much as you want."

"Okay. I wanna go home." While the paramedics loaded Belle onto a stretcher, Archie helped RJ to his feet. While they were walking past Neal RJ stopped.

"I'm sorry I told you to go away. I didn't mean it. I really like you."

"It…it's okay Bobby. I'm…just a little upset because I miss my dad."

"He'll be back. He's real brave and now I don't have to be afraid of the monster anymore cause he killed it."

Neal threw his arms around him. "Yes he did," he croaked.

At first Belle could see when she opened her eyes were white walls. When her vision cleared she saw Neal and Emma sitting beside her bed. Neal's eyes were swollen like he'd been crying.

"Neal…oh no…is RJ?"

"He's not dead….he's just…lost." Neal said hoarsely. "And I don't know if I can get him back."

"He's turned into Bobby again," she murmured. Neal nodded. She reached over and took his hand in hers. "We'll get him back," she vowed.


	8. Chapter 7

Neal was trying to enjoy the slop that the hospital called food in cafeteria but it wasn't just the horrible taste of the food that was the cause of his lack of an appetite...it was finally facing a truth he'd been too blind to see for years. He'd seen some instances of his father's regression when he was a child but his mother always made him go somewhere else while she dealt with him and then she finally had him hospitalized.

"I'm sorry I never told you Neal," Milah said softly while they were speaking on the phone. He'd called her a few hours after they arrived at the hospital. Once his surgeon released him, RJ would be transferred to a clinic where Dr. Hopper would oversee the rest of his treatment. He was still locked inside his child personality and the staff, although stunned to see the reclusive Mr. Gold acting so strange, had to admit that he was cute as a little boy and Jefferson was doing everything he could to prevent the papers from taking his client's fragile mental state and turning it into a media circus. "How is he?"

"He just knows me as RJ's son...that's all Mom," Neal said sadly. "H...How did he know you?"

"As his best friend...and wife. Can I talk to him, Neal?"

"Mom, are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Maybe hearing my voice will help him a bit," Milah suggested. Neal looked over at Dr. Hopper who was sitting in the cafeteria with him for guidance. He nodded. Together they took the elevator down to RJ's room. He was watching a cartoon on television and glaring down at his tray, his arms crossed over his chest like he was pouting.

"This stuff tastes like crap, Neal," he complained. "I don't want it!" He shoved the tray away.

"I know but you need to eat so you can get better."

"I want a burger, fries and some ice cream!"

"I'll get you some when you get better, okay? Oh...there's someone who wants to talk to you."

"Huh?" Neal handed him the phone. "Umm...hello?"

"Hi Bobby. Do you remember me?" Milah asked softly.

"Milah! Yeah...where you been? Did Neal tell you RJ killed the monster and now I don't have to be afraid of him anymore?"

"Yes he did."

"He hurt Belle and he hurt me but RJ was real brave and shot him dead," RJ bragged. "And once I get better Doctor Hopper said he's gonna help me get back home. I wanna go home. I miss it but I still can talk to you, Belle and Neal."

"That's wonderful, honey," Milah said through her tears. "I...I'm sorry I can't come to see you right now...but I will soon and we can catch up...okay?"

"You still livin with that guy who thinks he's Captain Hook. He can't be Captain Hook cause he don't have a red coat, curly hair and a hook for a hand."

Neal and Milah both laughed. "Yes, I am sweetie but he treats me good."

"He better..or RJ's gonna kick his butt like he did the monster."

"Oh, I know he will. I'll talk to you soon."

"Bye Milah!" He handed the phone back to Neal.

"That's how I had to handle him when he was like that...like having another child," Milah informed her son. "Seeing or hearing about anything involving children being harmed always triggered it. I guess that was Gordon's plan all along. To drive your father so far out of his mind that he couldn't stop him."

"Mom, did you know he has visions?"

"Psychic visions? Neal, tell me you're not serious!"

"I am. Belle said that's how she found us. He was able to led her right to us...and he always saw the kids being taken before it happened. That was probably what was triggering his regressions the most."

"Oh God," Milah whispered. "Can Dr. Hopper help him? Every doctor I took him to tried and said there was nothing they could do. I know I should've tried harder but I wanted a husband...not a child. He was so angry when I filed for divorce...but I couldn't tell him the real reason...it would have killed him."

"He forgave you Mom."

"But he hasn't forgotten it either," Milah reminded him.

Neal went out into the hall to finish his conversation with his monther while Dr. Hopper stayed in the room with RJ. When Neal returned he smiled. Dr. Hopper had gotten RJ to eat some of his dinner even if it was awful.

"I still wanna burger and fries later," RJ pouted. "This stuff really sucks. An when am I gonna see Belle?"

"I'll tell you what...if you finish your dinner I'll take you to see Belle. Deal?" Neal asked his father, remembering RJ used to do the same to him when he had one of his own fits and refused to eat. RJ began to eat with a little more enthusiasm although Neal could sympathize with his thinking that it was awful.

Later on Neal took his father down to Belle's room. She was reading a book Emma brought her from the gift shop. As soon as she saw them, she marked her place and set it aside.

"Belle!" RJ cried excitedly and threw his arms around her. "You're okay!"

"Yes I am. How are you, Bobby?"

"It hurts a little bit here," he said and pointed at his shoulder. "Do your brains hurt?"

Belle laughed. "No, honey, they don't. Just my head."

"Do you know the monster's dead and RJ killed it?"

"Yes I do. Now he can't hurt you anymore."

"Uh huh and pretty soon I can go home but you'll still be my friend, right?" he asked hopefully.

"Of course I will, sweetie."

He glanced over at the tray sitting on her nightstand and scowled. "Eww, they made you eat that crap too! When I get outta here I wanna burger, fries and some ice cream. I'm not eating anymore crap!"

Belle laughed. " A burger and fries sounds good to me."

"You like burgers and fries too?"

"Yes. With ketchup and pickles."

"Me too only I like lotsa pickles! Neal said he was gonna take me for a burger and fries...you wanna come with us?"

"I'd love to," she said softly.

Two days later they were both released from the hospital. It was an emotional scene for both of them only for different reasons. RJ as Bobby was sad to see his friend leaving and Belle was concerned that she would never see the man she'd bonded with briefly again. She wished the circumstances had been different yet she still held on to hope that someday he would come back. Even Dr. Hopper seemed to agree with her. He suggested that she visit RJ as much as she could at the hospital and talk to him about the man he was. He believed that it was key to making RJ want to banish his child personality and allow his adult one to come back to the surface. She was also receiving support from a most unlikely source, his ex-wife.

"My mistake was giving up," she said to Belle when they spoke on the phone. "He seems to like you as both of them and maybe you can get him back. I tried...just not hard enough. Don't make my mistake."

Even David, Regina, Ashley and Ruby made appearances at the clinic. It was odd for them to talk to him like a child when they all knew him as the reclusive Mr. Gold but they all knew the role he played in saving their lives and were forever grateful to him as were their families. They would have their own struggles coping with their ordeal but like RJ's family, they were willing to help bring him back. They began talking to him about their own memories of him as an adult. Once in a while his own personality would emerge when he was with one of them and most of the time it was Regina. She, Belle and Neal were having the most success keeping his own personality dominant more than the others.

A week after the children were returned home, Belle resigned from the force. Both Emma and Graham were disappointed to see her go however they'd been expecting it. This case had taken quite an emotional toll on her and she wanted to have more time to spend with RJ. She eventually took a job as a library assistant.

RJ was sitting at the desk in his room writing out the new chapter of his latest book when he heard the key turn in the door lock and glanced over to see Belle standing there holding a bag in one hand and a stack of books tucked under her arm.

"Is that a hamburger and fries I smell?" he asked her. "You know, they could kick you out of here for violating the rules on what patients are supposed to be eating."

She laughed. "And I'd expose them for cruel and unusual punishment by forcing their patients to eat slop." She set the bag down on the desk. "Looks like you've gotten a lot more done since last week."

"My hand hurts...I miss my laptop."

She pulled up a chair and sat down beside him, setting the books on the desk. "You weren't all that specific with your list this week so I just started pulling books I thought you'd like. Classics, mostly."

"I don't care what they are. They help pass the time."

"You don't belong in here."

"We've been over this, Belle. Yes I do...until I get better."

"You haven't regressed at all in three months and you're not having visions...are you?"

He looked away.

"RJ?"

"They're not the same...but unlike the others...I want them to happen...only they can't," he confessed sadly. "And you can't keep coming here."

"Why?" she asked.

"It's better that way."

"That's not an answer."

"It's the only one I can give you."

"Well I'm not satisfied with it. And I'm the one who's going to decide whether I should stop coming to see you or not."

"You have your own life."

"That isn't all that interesting at the moment except when I come here," she pointed out.

"You could go back to the force. You were a great cop Belle."

"My heart wasn't in it anymore and I love my job at the library."

"Emma misses her partner and rants to me every chance she gets about it." RJ teased.

"She comes to see you too?"

"Mostly to ask my advice."

"On how to handle Neal?"

"Yeah. I still can't wrap my head around that one. I about had a stroke when he told me he actually asked her out right in the police station. You could have warned me she was interested in him."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, they ummm...didn't start talking until we got out of the hospital. You're not upset they're dating, are you? They really are getting along well."

"So my son tells me. He's been through quite a few disastrous relationships. I just don't want to see him hurt."

"So has Emma but they're taking it slow," she assured him. "It's a beautiful day RJ. Do you think they might let you go outside for some air?"

"Archie usually holds my therapy sessions outside," he said. "The other doctors look at him like he's the crazy one but he doesn't give a damn. Never did." He grabbed a blanket off the bed and handed it to her. She smiled, pleased that he had the same idea she did, they would make it into a picnic. They chose a spot by a fountain. RJ informed Belle it was also the spot where he and Archie would sit when they had their therapy sessions. She took his hamburger and fries out of the bag and handed them to him along with a can of soda and then retrieved her own. Once in a while their eyes would meet while they ate.

"RJ," she said once they were finished eating. "Please tell me what your visions are about now."

"Why do you want to know?" he asked uncomfortably.

"I just need to." she answered vaguely. "And I think you need to tell me."

"Now isn't the first time I've had one like that…it happened before."

"When?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yes it does. When?" she persisted.

"All right! It was in the hospital after I found Regina's horse dead and her missing and it was not the kind of vision I should've been having at a time like that!" he cried.

"What was it about?"

He sighed with frustration. "Us, okay! It was about us. Can we drop this now?"

"No. What about us, RJ?"

He looked away. She took his hand in hers and held it tightly. "You may think it's better for me to be out of your life but I don't. I'm not going to give up on you like Milah did."

"I could go back to being him…at any time." he said worriedly.

"I don't think you will. You no longer have a reason to because Gordon is gone and he can't hurt you anymore. You killed your monster, RJ. Now it's time to take back your life and I'm going to be there…every step of the way whether you want me to be or not…but I think you _do _want me there."

"I do," he said softly. "And I really shouldn't."

"Yes you should."

"I keep forgetting how stubborn you are. Belle, this isn't going to be much of relationship with me being here."

"Well then that should give you an incentive to work harder at getting better, shouldn't it?"

He smiled.

_One year later_

RJ felt like his hand was about to fall off. He'd lost count of how many copies of his book he'd signed that day but when he listened to the people who approached him and talked to him about their own struggles with mental illness and past abuse and praised him for being courageous to make his own struggles public. Jefferson was the one who suggested his next book be an autobiography and they argued back and forth over the issue for weeks. Finally it was Belle who convinced him that telling his story would help others like him. He had his doubts right up until the day of his book signing and the reviews started coming out. When the last customer left the bookstore, RJ rose from his seat and picked up the copy of the book that he planned to give Belle at the library.

"Where's Belle?" he inquired of Mary Margaret when he walked in.

"Oh, she's putting away some books in the adult section. You want me to tell her you're here?"

"No, I want to surprise her."

Belle was standing on the ladder trying to put a book back on the shelf when she lost her footing and fell. She felt someone catch her before they both crashed to the floor. When she realized who was holding her, she gasped.

"RJ! Oh my God I'm so sorry! Are you all right?"

"Just had the wind knocked out of me, that's all." he said, helping her up and retrieving her book, breathing a sigh of relief when the special bookmark he placed in it hadn't fallen out.

"How did your book signing go?"

"My hand feels like it's about to fall off but it went well. I met a few people who are in an abuse victims support group. They want me to come to their next meeting and I said I'd go."

"I'm so proud of you," she said softly. "I know it's not easy for you to talk about all of this but I am proud of you for having the courage to do it."

"If it wasn't for all of you supporting me I'd probably still be stuck as Bobby." He handed her the book. "There's something in one of the chapters I want you to read."

"I still don't understand why you wouldn't let me read it while you were writing it."

"I wasn't ready to," he said. Curious, she opened the book and was shocked to see a diamond ring stuck between the pages.

"RJ…" she breathed.

"Belle, will you marry me?" he asked nervously.

"Yes! _Yes!_" she cried and threw her arms around him. As they kissed a vision flashed before his eyes. He could see them in a hospital, only this time he was holding a newly born baby in his arms. He was looking forward to the day when it finally happened, which he hoped would be very soon.


End file.
